Note: First
familiarize yourself with the names for the kinds of scientific writing
and with the names given the traditional parts of a scientific article
on the page titled "Types of Natural Sciences Writing."
Write the article's sections in proper order--see "General Advice..."
at the end of that page. Then consult this "cookbook" to get
instructions for creating the four most difficult parts of the article
so they will do what a scientific reader expects them to do. As you
write, turn to the section you are working on and make sure it follows
these instructions in the order they are given.

INTRODUCTION:The
Introduction answers the questions: what?; why?; and how? ("Who?" and
"where?" and "when?" are identified on your title page by your name,
course, and date.)

Teach the reader about your subject:

1) Define the
subject, describing characteristics of the animal, plant, organ,
structure, chemical, etc. you will study and explaining those
characteristics' importance. As you do, mention pertinent literature
that discusses previous research on your subject.

2) Describe the
controversy or question which requires you to perform this experiment,
referring to the literature mentioned in #1 above.

3) State how your experiment addresses this question or controversy (your purpose).

4) Finish with the major finding of your report, in one sentence if possible.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:The Materials and Methods section describes the essential stages of procedure necessary to reproduce this experiment.

Tell the reader how to repeat your experiment:

1) Explain the source of chemicals and/or animals

2) Explain your
"experimental design," including the number and types of animals,
quantities and concentrations of chemicals, make and model of unusual
equipment, essential conditions (heat/cold, time, agitation or other
stimuli).

RESULTS:The
Results section reports, without conclusions or discussion, specific
effects the Materials and Methods said you were looking for (Materials
and Methods #3).

Tell the reader
what you found, dividing results of complicated experiments into types
and reporting each type of result in a separate paragraph:

1) Open each Results
paragraph with one general sentence stating the part of the procedure
used to see the result described in that paragraph (should correlate
with #3 in Materials and Methods).

2) State relevant
results seen in this procedure, specifying both qualities (e.g.,
redness) and quantities (e.g., drops per minute). Use words and phrases
like "greater," "lesser," "increased with time," "the majority," "less
than 50%" to specify general trends in your results.

3) Many results
include so many numbers that it is better to present this data in table
or graph form. Summarize major trends in words (as in #2 above) but do
not repeat actual numbers. Refer readers to the table, graph, or figure
after your summary sentence: "Blood pressure is correlated with body
weight (Figure 1) and age (Table 1)."

DISCUSSION:Your
Discussion explains what the results show and interprets what they mean
for the question or controversy which motivated the experiment
(Introduction #2 and #3).

For each result reported in Results, explain what the result shows or means:

2) Match each
paragraph in Results with a paragraph in Discussion. Open each paragraph
with a 1-sentence summary of the procedure and result obtained (Results
#1 & #2). Follow with a conclusion that can be drawn from the
result. Use words and phrases like: "therefore" and "this result shows
that" when conclusions follow directly, without interpretation, from the
result; "this result suggests that" and "this result supports the
conclusion that" when the results are not sufficient in themselves to
confirm conclusions. If you found articles in scientific literature that
support or contradict your findings, mention their findings here and
explain how they affect your conclusions.

3) The final paragraph speculates on how your study may relate to a more general issue (see Introduction #1 and #2).

How To Write a Scientific PaperBy Susan Cordova for the New Mexico Junior Academy of Science

STYLEIn
all sections of the paper, present tense should be used to report
background that is already established. For example, "The cell membrane
is the barrier which separates the inside of the cell from the outside."
Use future tense for work that you will do. For example, "We will test
the hypothesis that some anti-microbial agents can permeate the cell
membrane during division to inhibit growth." Always use past tense to
describe results of a specific experiment, especially your own. For
example, "Application of the antibiotic Chloramphenicol restricted
growth of E. coli.". Number the pages of the body of the paper
beginning with the Introduction as page 1. For a short paper a "Table of
Contents" is generally not necessary.CAPTIONINGCaptioning
is a method of separating the body of a paper into sections. Headings
show organization and identify the topic for a section or a block of
information. Capital letters, underlining, point size, and position on
the page help to differentiate rank or level. TITLE PAGEThe
person reading, grading or judging a scientific paper can be most
objective if the author remains anonymous while the paper is read. Your
name, date, and title of the paper should be on a cover page, and not on
any other part of the paper. See the "Rules for the Paper Competition"
for additional information needed on the title page if you are entering
the NMJAS Paper Competition. Your title should be specific in describing
the experiment you performed. For example, "Effects of a Variety of
Anti-microbial Agents on Four Bacterial Cultures" is much more
interesting than just "Anti-microbial Agents".ABSTRACTThe
Abstract is a summary of the study, with the primary emphasis on
results and conclusions. Very briefly present the question(s) asked, the
experimental design, a summary of observations, and list conclusions.
Be very succinct - the abstract should be a single paragraph, no more
than one page. It should stand on its own; therefore, do not refer to
any other part of the report, such as a figure or table. Avoid long
sections of introductory or explanatory material. As a summary of work
done, it is written in past tense. Start your introduction on new page.

"This
study was done to look at the effect of a variety of antimicrobial
agents on several microorganisms. This response is usually determined by
the agent's mode of action and the structure of the microbe. The
experiment involved applying antimicrobial disks onto agar inoculated
with the test microbe. Zones of inhibition were measured after 18 hours
to determine each reaction as sensitive, resistant, or intermediate. Staph. Aureus, a gram positive organism with a thick cell wall, was very sensitive to all agents except Nalidixic acid. P. Aeruginosa showed resistance to all but Streptomycin which had an intermediate effect. E. coli was resistant to all but Chloramphenicol and Nalidixic acid. These results were consistent with the fact that E. coli and P. Aeruginosa are
gram negative organisms which exhibit a thin cell wall of peptidoglycan
with an outer membrane acting as a barrier against some antibiotics.
Further experiments should investigate the sensitivity or resistance of
strains from different sources, such as hospitals and schools." INTRODUCTIONKeep
the introduction brief, but do indicate the purpose of the experiments
performed as well as present appropriate background. Make sure that the
reader knows enough to appreciate the relevance of the work and why it
is appropriate to ask the question that you will address with your
study. Always state the hypothesis and/or objectives in your
introduction.

"This investigation involved exposing several
microorganisms to a variety of anti-microbial agents to test whether the
microbe was sensitive, resistant or intermediate to the particular
agents. This kind of testing is very important in the medical field
because physicians need to know what antibiotics to prescribe for
certain microbial infections. Anti-microbial agents, because of their
mode of action, inhibit the growth of only some microorganisms, and some
work better than others. The Kirby-Bauer method employed in this study
involves applying paper disks impregnated with different anti-microbial
agents onto an agar surface inoculated with the test organism. The zones
of inhibition which appear after incubation can be measured to
determine the classification of sensitivity. It is hypothesized that two
of the four organisms used, P. aeruginosa and E. coli,
will show resistance to most of the anti-microbial agents due to their
extra LPS (lipopolysaccharide) layer, characteristic of all gram
negative organisms, which hinders growth inhibition." METHODSYou
must document all methods performed in your study. Do not, under any
circumstances, report methods word-for-word from any of the written
sources you used. You need to summarize, in your own words, what you
did. Also, do not give unneeded detail. For example, instead of "I took
up 1 ml of bacterial broth from a 5 ml tube with a 2 ml plastic pipet
and expelled it onto the surface of one agar plate", write "One agar
plate was inoculated with 1 ml of bacterial broth". We can also see that
in this latter sentence passive voice was used to report methods, a
standard for most scientific publications. To give another example, one
would write "Cells were grown at 37oC." instead of "We grew the cells at 37oC.".

While
it is tempting to report methods in chronological order in a narrative
form, it is usually more effective to present them under headings
devoted to specific procedures or groups of procedures. Some examples of
separate headings are "Sources of Materials," "Inoculation Procedures",
"Analytical Procedures", "Measuring Zones of Inhibition," and
"Statistical Methods."

Don't report information that would be
irrelevant to an independent investigator. For example, not everyone
uses the computer software you have in the lab. The programs you used to
organize or plot data are not important. Most important, do not report
any results of the experiment in the methods section. These, of course,
go in the "Results" section.RESULTSRaw
data include all observations or data that you get from your
experiment. Raw data are never included in your scientific paper unless
they are needed to give evidence for specific conclusions which cannot
be obtained by looking at an analysis, or summation, of the data.
Analyze your data, then present them in the form of figures (graphs),
tables, and/or descriptions of observations. Data in this form are
called converted data. Figures are preferable to tables, and tables are
preferable to straight text. By presenting converted data, you make your
point succinctly and clearly.

To give your results continuity,
describe the relationship of each section of converted data to the
overall study. For example, rather than just putting a table in the
paper and going on to the discussion section, write, "Table 2 shows the
means and standard deviations for each interaction of anti-microbial
agent and microbe. The results of those interactions with both 0
inhibitions and large positive inhibitions were questionable and were
subsequently marked with a question mark (?)." The same goes for
figures.

The table or figure should then be presented, complete
with title. The title should explain what the table or figure is
showing. For example, "Table 2. Means (M) and Standard Deviations (SD)
of Inhibition Zone Diameters (mm)"

All converted data go into the
body of the report, after the methods and before the discussion. Do not
stick graphs or other data onto the back of the report just because you
printed or prepared them separately. Place raw data at the back of the
report as an appendix, if needed. The appendix is also appropriate for
any sample calculations that are needed, such as hand-worked statistical
analyses or raw calculations that show how you arrived at reported
values. A published research report will seldom have such an appendix,
but it may be appropriate in the case of a paper competition.

Do not draw conclusions in the results section. Reserve data interpretation for the discussion. DISCUSSIONInterpret
your data in the discussion. Decide if each hypothesis is supported,
rejected, or if you cannot make a decision with confidence. Do not
simply dismiss a study or part of a study as "inconclusive". Make what
conclusions you can, then suggest how the experiment must be modified in
order to properly test the hypothesis(es).

Explain all of your observations as much as possible, focusing on mechanisms.

"Proteus mirabilis
displayed an array of reactions to the antimicrobial agents. It was
resistant to Bacitracin and Vancomycin, both involved in inhibiting
peptidoglycan synthesis. The types of penicillins involved in inhibiting
transpeptidization in the cell wall, Ampicillin and Methicillin, were
more effective in inhibiting growth. The differences in these results
may involve the different specific stages at which the antibiotics have
their effect on protein synthesis."

When you refer to
information, distinguish data generated by your own studies from
published information or from information obtained from other students.
Refer to work done by specific individuals (including yourself) in past
tense. Refer to generally accepted facts and principles in present
tense.

"John Doe (1964) found that Chloramphenicol prevents the
formation of peptide bonds during protein synthesis while Erythromycin
inhibits translocation."

Most studies will require a critique of
the experiment. Determine if you asked the right question in the first
place. Decide if the experimental design adequately addressed the
hypothesis, and whether or not it was properly controlled. For example:

"There
were a few problems with the data. A few of the interactions between
antibiotic and microbe showed a great amount of inhibition along with
absolutely no inhibition. Many of the antibiotic disks were out of date
(some as long as 15 years) which may have caused some of the disks to
lose their potency. A loss of potency would cause a decrease in
inhibition. Although it could be assumed from this fact that the
positive inhibition data is the more accurate, it cannot be said with
certainty."

Finally, where do you go next? The best studies open
up new avenues of research. What questions remain? Did the study lead
you to any new questions? Try to think up a new hypothesis and briefly
suggest new experiments to further address the main question. Be
creative, and don't be afraid to speculate.

"Future
experiments might include using cultures of microbes from different
sources, such as hospitals, day care centers, and schools to look for
signs of lowered resistance."LITERATURE CITEDLiterature
citations in the body of your paper should be in parentheses and
contain only the author's last name and the date; for multiple authors
include the last name of the first author, et al., and the date. If the
author's name is used in the text then just the date in parentheses is
sufficient. For example: (Monod, 1949) (Neidhardt et al., 1990) or Monod
(1949) compared the reaction….. List all literature cited in your
report in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author in a
separate section. Use the proper form for citations. If the citation is
to a specific page add the page number.